Tag: saigon

words and photos by Simon Stanley Having first arrived in the early 1990s, the Japanese community in Ho Chi Minh City today is one of the largest and longest-standing expat groups, giving way to an entire neighbourhood of sushi joints, whisky bars, closed-door massage parlours and sex-starved salarymen. For the full story, as published by…

Meeting Saigon’s last public writer Words and photos by Simon Stanley. Published by Rice Media, April 2017. As the 100-year-old French mansions and public buildings of Saigon meet their doom one by one, often at the hands of the developer’s wrecking ball, the 21st-century skyline of Ho Chi Minh City is rapidly emerging as…

Vietnam’s road safety conundrum: Whose job is it to keep the country’s new drivers safe? “We don’t use those in Vietnam,” said the driver of a popular ride-hailing service with frustration as I searched for the rear seat belts in the depths of his shiny new car. When I found them still wrapped in plastic film,…

Has one tourist’s misfortune opened the doors to improved safety on Saigon’s streets? by Simon Stanley. Eyebrows were raised this week after a foreign tourist was awarded $1,000 in compensation by a Saigon-based firm after she tripped over a metal U-shaped fixing — part of a nighttime light installation — embedded in a District 1…

Simon Stanley discovers how Ho Chi Minh City became the rising star of Southeast Asia’s craft beer scene. As a country famous for its dirt cheap bottles of lager commonly drunk over ice as a remedy to the heat and humidity, you wouldn’t expect to find a world-class chocolate stout being brewed in Vietnam, not…

A Guide to Ho Chi Minh City’s Hidden Treasures. Words and photos by Simon Stanley. Published by Sapore di Cina, January 2017. For tourists visiting Saigon for the first time, many of whom come clutching one of just a handful of printed tour guides currently on sale, even those picking their own way around the…

A three-part series looking at some of the best early-morning eats in Ho Chi Minh City. Words and photos by Simon Stanley. Whether it’s our favourite brand of cereal eaten over the day’s news headlines, a buttery slice of toast hurriedly munched on the way to the station, or a full-blown multi-course feast, breakfast is…

Simon Stanley unwraps the tropical festive spirit, of a very Vietnamese Christmas. Photos by Vinh Dao. Despite being home to a relatively small Catholic community, with the majority of the remainder of the population being either Buddhist or atheist, Vietnam is once again poised to embrace the spirit of Christmas in a big way. With a thirst for…

“We’re in the wrong place,” I mutter to myself as I wait nervously for Wowy Nguyen to arrive. Surrounded by fresh flowers, potpourri and black and white portraits of Princess Diana and Angelina Jolie, with an acoustic cover of a Taylor Swift song playing in the background, the overtly quaint She Cafe in downtown Saigon…

As he prepares to embark on fatherhood, Simon Stanley talks to three families from Saigon’s international community about what life is like for foreigners raising children in Vietnam. Cover photo by Adam Clark. Shipping Out Teachers Anita and Sean O’Neill arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the summer of 2014 with their then four-year-old son Jude….

Vietnam’s southern metropolis, officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, may not have the picture postcard charms of its northern counterpart Hanoi, but as a melting pot of cultures, cuisines, old meets new and East meets West, where shimmering skyscrapers rub shoulders with colonial-era mansions, it has much more to offer than many first-time visitors…

From London’s vibrant pop-up restaurant scene comes a menu as rich and as varied as its heritage, where steamed buns are just the beginning. By Simon Stanley. Photos by Vinh Dao. Baozi’s story started in England, when Chris Huynh, a Londoner born to Vietnamese parents, along with his Greek-British friend and business partner, Pablo Marks,…